Deviations
by Etrixan
Summary: Oneshot: The angels are going to keep trying until they get it right, no matter what it does to their vessels or to themselves.


Title: **Deviations**  
Summary: They're going to keep trying until they get it right.  
Characters: The Angels  
Disclaimer: Belongs to Eric Kripke and that gang. I'm just having fun.  
Rating: G  
Warnings: Spoilers for up to Season 5, ep. 13: The Song Remains the Same (Back to the Future II)

* * *

"We should run the scenario again," Raphael said. The archangel sat erect in his chair, as if the slightest hint of relaxation would defile him, make him lesser than he knew he was. Out of all the angels at the table, he had the least experience interacting with humans and their intransigence was both irritating and baffling. He was ready for this to be over.

Gabriel snorted. "And change what? We've run it a hundred times and the result hasn't changed." He was sprawling sideways in his chair, eating a chocolate bar. He'd been the Trickster for so many lives that he'd become addicted to candy and ate it even when he was 'off the clock'. Besides, he knew the other archangel found it irritating and, since these meetings were so boring, he had to find what fun he could when he could.

"There has to be something, some particular moment or event," Raphael stared at his older brother implacably, refusing to rise to the bait but it was an old thought and its repetition had the others at the table sighing in exasperation.

"So which of the thousands of moments should we change, Rafe," Gabriel sneered. "Take a look in your crystal ball and let us know."

"What we need are suggestions, not mockery," Zachariah interrupted. The last thing he wanted was for this to devolve into the same, tired argument.

"We should go back farther," Michael said quietly.

"We've already altered the parents' lives—"

"A thousand times," Anna muttered softly. She didn't like this latest variation, where Michael incinerated her vessel, but it was the only way they found to show Dean his archangel's full power without losing control of the timeline. It hurt like, well, being burned to ashes but it was an order and she obeyed because she was an angel and that what they did. Her bitterness wasn't lightened by knowing that it hadn't helped, letting herself get beat up and burned. Dean still fought them and blocked them and ruined _everything_.

"Not quite a thousand," Zachariah corrected firmly. "No point in exaggerating as it makes the situation sound worse than it is." There was a soft snort, easily ignored, but no argument. Zachariah had chosen his vessel for its size, since both the Winchesters always grew so tall and threats just didn't have the same impact coming from someone they could look down on, but he'd found he enjoyed the way it allowed him to dominate his less powerful siblings in situations like these. A small thing, but useful.

"We've changed their deaths and their parents' deaths. We've changed who died, in which order, when they died and how they died. We've even let both of them live and it still ends up in failure," Uriel pointed out impatiently. Of all of them, he was the least tolerant of the intransigence of their chosen players. He'd never liked humans but now, after how many attempts, he was really beginning to loathe Dean and Sam and all their relatives. He actually felt kind of happy whenever one of them died again. Not that he ever let his brethren know he felt that way. That kind of emotion was almost... human.

"They _have_ to grow up hunters. They have to grow up on the road, isolated from everyone but each other," Zachariah repeated the only constants they had discovered.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "We know, Zach. If they don't then Sammy gets killed _real_ early in Azazel's little death match and Dean, even if he cared enough for Sam—which he doesn't—doesn't know to go down to the crossroads and make the deal to have Sam brought back to life. No deal, no first seal, no vessel for Michael. We already know those things are unchangeable."

Once again, Zachariah interrupted to bring the discussion back on point. "So let's deal with the things we _can_ change."

"Maybe we shouldn't use the Winchesters at all," Raphael responded.

"Good luck getting Azazel to agree to that," Uriel muttered under his breath.

Raphael still heard him. His eyes were flat and emotionless when he looked at Uriel and the angel knew that his more powerful sibling would squash him without a backward thought if he decided it was necessary. "Maybe we should try harder to convince him."

"We've tried, Raphael. You know we've tried everything. Azazel insists that Mary Winchester has to be the mother of Lucifer's vessel. Nobody else will do." Zachariah sighed, "If he weren't a demon, I'd think he was infatuated."

"Demons were once human," Anna broke in, "Even twisted they still have souls which mean they are capable of feeling respect, hope... love."

Gabriel rolled his eyes, "Oh please. Stop with the Hallmark card."

She glared at the sloppy archangel. "It's more emotion than any of you will ever feel and since you can't feel it, you should stop sneering at it."

"Anna–" Zachariah tried to sooth her. He failed.

"Don't try to 'handle' me, Zachariah," she snapped at him, "You suck at it."

Gabriel rolled his eyes, "Somebody's cranky. Have some chocolate." He held out a Snickers bar. Not one of his favourite so he didn't mind sacrificing it to a worthy cause.

"You can shove your candy bar, _Gabe_. You try ripping out your Grace a thousand times and see how happy that makes you." Her voice was bitter but no one at the table was going to argue that she had no right to it. She _had_ to grow up human. She had to be found and rescued by Dean and Sam... and Ruby. If that event didn't happen then Dean would kill Ruby before Sam had a chance to fully commit to using his demon blood. If he didn't commit then he wouldn't drink enough to kill Lilith, so the door wouldn't open, and he wouldn't change into Lucifer's perfect vessel.

Too many events relied on Dean's brief truce with the double-dealing demon and _that_ relied on Anna ripping out her Grace.

"Azazel's feelings aside, it has to be the Winchester brothers. You all know this so that part is not up for discussion," Michael's soft voice was implacable and killed the growing argument.

It also killed the conversation until Zachariah stepped in. "Well, you being human certainly made Ruby's job easier. She's gotten Sam up to the mark ninety-seven out of the last one hundred times," the angel was annoyingly cheerful, "so your sacrifice is appreciated."

Anna was tempted to give him the finger but resisted. No point in letting the others know just how human she was becoming. She actually enjoyed most of the time she got to spend as a mortal. Food, especially chocolate, topped the list of perks. And sex. That last night in the backseat of Dean's car... She swallowed down a smile at the memory. Instead she pointed out that Ruby's involvement made it harder for them to manage Dean. "As she her influence over Sam grows, Dean turns to us for help and we turn him down. We don't explain. We don't do anything. It doesn't exactly encourage him to trust us." Uriel snorted and tipped his chair back, away from the table. Anna turned to him, "You don't help anything by calling them 'mud monkeys', Uriel."

The dark angel let his chair fall back down with a crash. "Maybe we should forget about trust. Maybe we should put the fear of God into Dean Winchester! And none of that cutesy cancer stuff either. I'm talking full on Wrath of God."

"If he can't be conned then use coercion?" Zachariah liked the idea. He missed the eras when angels could speak to mortals and be instantly obeyed. All this finessing and screwing around meant he had to spend far too much time in a meat suit. He hated meat suits. They smelled. They were heavy. They were, in all, disgusting things. He would never understand how their Father ever thought these flesh puppets were better than the angels he'd created. On the other hand, he didn't have to understand

Raphael and Michael looked thoughtful but Gabriel and Anna were already shaking their heads. "It's hard to threaten someone with God's Wrath when we don't even know where Daddy is," Gabriel mocked.

Anna nodded agreement. "The scariest thing we can do is threaten to send Dean back to Hell but, depending on the circumstances, he'd let us do it." Uriel opened his mouth but she held up a hand to stop him. "Before you suggest threatening to send Sam to Hell, remember, if we have to follow through—which we probably would—it does us no good to have either of them in the pit."

"All these variables," Michael sighed, "We've only tried a fraction of the permutations and we've only found a couple that are immutable. Ruby is one of them."

Speaking of one immutable player made Uriel think of the other. "It would help if we could have Castiel's input," he said. He ignored Gabriel's exasperated eye roll; he knew it had been suggested before but the angel was the only one who had ever built up a good rapport with the human. No one knew Michael's vessel like Castiel. Unfortunately, in his way he was as hard to deal with as Dean Winchester.

"We can't tell Castiel our true purpose," Zachariah said, "He gives it away every time."

"You mean he can't lie worth spit," Uriel said in disgust. Castiel was a good soldier, and Uriel could admire his brother for that, but his sense of honour was tiresome. He had never, not once, agreed to join Uriel in his support of Lucifer so they'd never been able to explore those timelines. The possibility that the answer to their problem was just a simple 'yes' from Castiel... Sometimes he hated his fellow angel for that. Not that he'd ever say so. Angels weren't supposed to hate. They weren't supposed to get annoyed either, but the dark angel had noticed that none of them were succeeding in keeping that emotion at bay, not even Michael.

"I have been working on a way that may allow us to use his knowledge without damaging what we've accomplished so far," Raphael stated calmly, knowing that all eyes turned to him attentively. "It occurred to me as I watched Gabriel's work in Broward County. We could tell Castiel everything then he would give us his opinions and answer our questions. We could then wipe his memory clean."

"Not that that wasn't excellent work on my part, but an angel's memory isn't quite as malleable as a human's."

Raphael's deep voice rumbled, "Are you saying you can't do it?"

Gabriel rolled his shoulders, tilted his head, squinted, and did everything he could to annoy the archangel without making him really angry. Seriously, the trickster thought, the guy needed to learn how to relax and not be so freaking _pompous_ all the time. Too bad Michael wouldn't let him do anything to Rafe. If anyone needed taking down a peg, he thought, it was their younger brother.

Uriel could say what he liked about the humans but at least most of them didn't walk around with such a huge stick up their asses. Some of them were actually rather fun...

"We've tried altering the memories of angels in the past and it doesn't work. Either they remember or they become unstable. It's not worth the risk." Michael had retained the John Winchester's shape so his voice was commanding but still soft.

"Maybe Michael shouldn't kill Anna. Dean was fond of her. Instead of having her go back and threaten the parent, perhaps she should re-cultivate the relationship," Zachariah said.

She frowned, "But I'd be an angel."

"So?"

"Angel... no emotion, remember?" she mocked.

He shrugged again, "Castiel seems to be managing just fine."

"Castiel is..." Michael searched for the words, unable to understand why their younger brother was so pivotal to their plans. He was a good soldier but nothing uncommon in terms of power or abilities.

"Different," Raphael finished for him. "However, it is an avenue we could explore. If Anna can convince Dean that she cares for him then we'd have a second path to his trust and someone who would give him the advice_ we_ want him to take." Every time the weaker angel talked the Winchester boy into trapping him in the holy fire—which was one out of every two timelines—it irked Raphael. He wanted to smite them both for causing him such inconvenience but that would be admitting too much emotion—emotion he wasn't supposed to have.

"It's worth a shot," Gabriel agreed. He gave Anna a challenging look. "_If_ you think you can pull it off."

"Bring it," she sneered back. At least she wouldn't get incinerated anymore.

"Then we have a consensus," Zachariah pushed his chair back hopefully, "We'll start with Dean's dream but, when Anna meets up with Castiel, she'll convince him that she's their ally. And we'll see what happens from there."

There were nods of agreement even as the angels pushed back their chairs, some eagerly, some wearily. "At least we only have to go back a couple earth months,"

"Does this mean I don't have to take over Habib so early?" Uriel asked. The longer he could delay living in meat, the happier he'd be.

Zachariah looked at the archangels before answering, "I suppose." Uriel tried but knew he didn't completely hide his relief.

Michael stood up, officially signalling an end to the meeting, but he had one last thing to say. "I know this has been difficult on all of you but we _will_ succeed and it will be worth it," he paused and made sure to catch each of their gazes in turn. "It's been over two thousand years since we attempted anything like this on earth. We should forgive ourselves for being out of practice." It was meant to be reassuring and encouraging so the others smiled and nodded, and let their eldest brother think they'd been reassured and encouraged.

Michael could be so naive.

That's why Uriel waited until he'd disappeared before muttering, "Getting these mud monkeys to do what they're supposed to is like herding gnats."

And that's why, if the others heard him, they did nothing to acknowledge it... even if they agreed with him.

_Fin._


End file.
